


A New Happy Ending

by Achrya



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 07:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11398215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/pseuds/Achrya
Summary: They never considered what to do after they saved the world. In truth they all expected to be dead. Living takes time...but not too much time.For rarepairs week, day 2: Getting Married





	A New Happy Ending

They kill Ardyn in Altissia, or, rather, Nyx and Libertus tackle him and hold him still while Luna heals him there, by the water. Without the darkness sustaining him he withers and and fades, turns to so much dust before their eyes and Luna mourns for the man he was once. She wishes his soul some measure of peace, wishes none of this had ever happened, hates that more death is all that can save the world. 

She hates that she knows this isn't how it was meant to be, that it's all wrong, and yet as her strength gives out and she collapses into Nyx’s arms, she decides she doesn't hate it much at all. 

Luna rethinks whatever pity she felt for Ardyn in those last moments when she sees the damage done to Ignis. The magic is too strong, too twisted, too deep for any amount of healing to touch, even if she had any left. And she doesn't, there's nothing in her, no power, and she finds she doesn't miss it at all. She feels better, stronger. Alive. As if healing Ardyn healed her as well.

But she’d endure it again if it meant helping Ignis. 

There's nothing to be done except to give him darker glasses to protect his unseeing eyes and clutch his hand as they wait for the prince, the king, they both love in their own ways to wake. 

And then he does. And no one knows what to do next. They've done it, stopped Ardyn and by proxy stopped the Empire, or a least severely wounded them. Ravus sends word that he's struck his own blow, has the Emperor in chains, and Noctis says he can feel that the crystal is gone, the power is mostly gone with it. Anything more than summoning weapons is impossible and for a time they worry but then word starts to spread that the daemons are gone.

Nothing comes creeping out of the shadows at night anymore.

They breathe a collective sigh of relief then, for lack of anything better, They decide to return to Insomnia. They don't talk about what comes next, of weddings and promises and peace, and once they're back in Lucis they make slow progress. Responsibilities and reality await, things to be rebuilt and reestablished, but, she thinks, they deserve the time. She thinks others would agree. 

She sits in a borrowed vehicle with Nyx and Libertus, listens to them make plans of returning to Galahd, of rebuilding it after Insomnia is repairs, of the world of their childhood and what they missed most. Of how it was different from Insomnia. Of running free in their villages, of family lost. She listens eagerly, envisions Nyx as a child, mourns quietly for the sister he speaks of glaringly under the stars. She catches his eye sometimes and wonders at the flutter she's been feeling in her chest since the ring of Lucii spared him and he decided to follow, at a distance because he wouldn't be welcome, but never far. A silent watchful guardian and oh, how that had tied her stomach into knots.

She grins when he tells the story of their grand escape to Noctis and the others, refuses to blush or duck her head at the less Ladylike parts but does when Nyx shares how impressed he was. He says she has steel in her spine and she doesn't know if it's true but she hopes it is. His knees brush her's at dinner and his fingers dance along her knee when they sit in the back of the car together. He's warm and solid when she me and over, curls against his side, and sleeps. 

She falls in love, slides into it, one stretch of road at a time. 

They kiss, and she starts it, reaches for him alongside the road when a tire has gone flat and everyone is allowed because there's no spare. His brows are furrowed and he's cursing, kicking the wheel, and she leans over and draws him in and its…

It's good. Nice. Dry and rough, a little sour, not electric or world shifting but perfect. 

The hooting and cheering from the other car not so much. 

Two days later they're rolling through another small towns, tucked away among more sand and rocky formations, and everything is so very good and bright. They pass a courthouse, Luna closes her eyes, and she can see it. 

She knows it's right, even when Nyx shares at her like she's lost her mind and nearly crashes into a light pole. She can taste frost in the air, breathes out mist, and brushes snowflakes from his hair.

This is right. 

Luna never imagined a happy ending for herself. She’s known all her life that sacrifice was to be her fate, that she would die young without a chance to truly grasp happiness. She would live like a bird in a cage, bartered for false peace, and give everything to bring light to the world.   


She didn’t question it. She accepted it. She would be Lunafreya, the deposed princess, the prisoner of war, the queen who almost was but wasn’t.   


Yet here she is.   


She once had another dress, pure white and befitting a future princess, a queen who would never be, handmade and jeweled. It was beautiful and she’d loved it for the peace it could have represented. She would have worn it with her head high and regretted nothing, though she’d always known it was not to be.   


She loves this one more. It’s simple, grabbed put of a shop that very day, one of a dozen of the same. Cotton and a crochet overlay, bare shoulders and a hem that hits at her knee. She’s barefoot, with flowers weaved in her hair and ones hastily pulled from the ground in her hand. There is no grand hall, no representative of the Astrals. Just a courthouse in a dusty town, cars still idling just outside, and a sleepy judge who barely seems to realize who stands before him.   
She has never been happier. Her smile is so wide, so uncontrollable, that it hurts her face.   


Noctis stands at her side, not across from her, and when he takes the flowers from her, he is looking elsewhere. She glances as well, sees he only has eyes for darkened lenses and deep scars, for a gently quirked smile, and soft accented words.   


Noctis, perhaps, will get his happy ending as well. Maybe they all will.   


Nyx stands across from her, scruffy and wearing his uniform (he says it’s the nicest thing he has on him and even if it weren’t she wouldn’t want him any other way), red dust brushed off as best as they could, hair pulled back. He’s no prince, no King of Light, but he is her’s and that is something Noctis could have never been. More than that Nyx wants to be her’s purely because he loves Luna, not the Lady, the Princess, the Oracle. Just Luna. 

Luna who tricks men into burning alive, who will jump from vehicles, who will stop at nothing to do what is right. He has seen what no one else has and loves her anyway. 

The ‘I do’ comes easily, gladly, with laughter as a plastic ring Prompto won from a claw machine while Iris and Gladio helped her gather wildflowers goes on her finger. She submits to being carried away and, once she's settled in the back of the Regalia (married couple privilege Noctis claims as he slides into the driver's seat and Ignis takes his place beside him) asks where the nearest hotel is. 

Nyx has the nerve to blush. 

She thinks, as the wind plays in her hair alongside Nyx’s fingers, that this is not the fate she was meant to have but she's done many impulsive things since meeting Nyx, so why not an entire impulsive future of her own creation?

An icy breeze whispers it's agreement.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] A New Happy Ending](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12825177) by [Annapods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annapods)




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